Monday, February 8, 2010

New Area - Tweed Heads

This picture was taken before the transfer.

All,

Well, I have so much to tell and this keyboard is horrible but my new area is called TWEED HEADS. Our flat overlooks the ocean and we have a broken in half surfboard in our flat. Wow. It is the best area in the mission.

To start the story off, Dawn's Baptism was so great. The font leaked during the beginning so when it came time to baptize her we had to fill it up for 5 min. She was nervous but did awesome and the spirit was very strong. It was such a great experience.

Elder Christofferson came to the mission but I was unable to go because my companion was sick. So I stayed in the flat and a day later got sick as well. :-) I got over it quickly though. It sounded really really good and I was sad that I was unable to go but 'sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.'

Transfers came and we were so busy that I was unable to email last Tuesday because our area is so far south and we couldn’t find computers. Michael asked me if I got to choose my area. President Richards never asked me where I wanted to go, but in the office I would always put my board card under Tweed Heads so I guess President got the hint! :-) I think he asked the AP's where and they said Tweed. Half of our area is in New South Wales so it’s really complicated scheduling appointments because New South Wales does Daylight Savings and Queensland doesn’t and we live in Queensland. I get so confused sometimes! So my new area is very big and one of the best areas in the Gold Coast. It is complete surf country! I love the ward members- all of them are just happy people and most of them surf. Out our window we can see the waves. We live on the Gold Coast Highway in Palm Beach so you can see it on a map.

My companion is the best news. His name is Elder Tauiliili and he is from Samoa. He was called to Australia Brisbane Chinese speaking but really he was learning English and Chinese. He has been out in the field 6 months. He is really smart and just has a heart of Gold. He has already come out of his shell and we have become really good friends. His English isn’t amazing so he always says "Its gunna be crazy!" to everything. He doesn’t have much teaching experience at all so it’s like he is new. Tweed Heads area was closed for the last 6 weeks so we just got shot into this area and the members are so happy to have us here.

The work here is going great!! We have baptisms already coming up. I am excited to tell you all about them- but my time is up so I’ll have to talk to you next week.